Shallan’s Sketchbook: Ashspren

Navani participates in a delicate spanreed communication with a mysterious spren who opposes her fabrial experiments, particularly those involving trapped spren. Using triangulation measurements, she determines the spren is hidden somewhere within Urithiru. After the conversation ends abruptly, Navani deliberately destroys the spanreed and spreads word of its loss, setting a trap to observe the spren's reaction.

Navani meets with engineer Falilar and scholars including scribe Kalami at a guard post to establish contact with a mysterious correspondent via spanreed. The phantom writer demands she cease her fabrial experiments, claiming she is trapping spren and causing them pain. The writer references humans as outsiders might and speaks of promises as foundational to the world's function. When Navani feigns the need to consult her theological advisors, Falilar and his team perform two spanreed measurements from different locations—one inside the tower and one on the plateau outside—to triangulate the source. The decay readings indicate the spren is extremely close, somewhere within Urithiru itself. The phantom reveals it knows of Navani's movements, suggesting a spy or agent in the tower. When the spanreed disconnects, Kalami theorizes the correspondent might be connected to a captive spren, and wonders if it could be another of the Unmade. Navani dismisses this, hypothesizing instead that this could be a liberationspren—a spren dedicated to freeing its kind. As they return to the tower, Navani deliberately drops and kicks the spanreed off the cliff's edge, destroying it. She instructs Falilar to organize a recovery team with secret orders to break the ruby if found, while spreading word of the loss throughout the tower. Navani suspects she knows the spren's identity and hopes this ruse will provoke a revealing reaction from the mysterious correspondent and its earthly agent.